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Anti-Grannies
The Anti-Grannies is an organization of citizens who feel oppressed by their lack of control over their lives and believe that Japan's fate belongs to its people and not to Grandmother, the freewill caretaker of Japan, who they take extreme actions to remove from power. Uejo and the Blood of Heroes On August 16th 3216, the Anti-Grannies contacted Grandmother via the Mars colony to inform her that they killed Shiro Yagami, the first Rai, and warned her not to create another champion unless she wished him to suffer the same fate. After Uejo, the leader of the Anti–Grannies, offered to end the bloodshed once Grandmother surrendered control of Japan, he proclaimed that its fate belonged to its people and not a soulless machine. While the great houses of Japan mourned the loss of one of their own, on Mars, Uejo led a toast to Shiro’s demise and their imminent discovery of the Blood of Heroes, the computerized blood of the legendary Bloodshot that held the power to destroy Grandmother. After the Anti-Grannies found the blood, they settled a hidden citadel outside the normal space-time continuum in the Lost Land, a place outside time and reality where Grandmother held no dominion, and from there they set out to find a psionic that they could inject with the blood to grant him mental control over electronic devices, including Grandmother. When Grandmother found the Anti-Grannies’ base, she sent Sho Sugino, the second Rai, to retrieve the blood and destroy her enemies. After what could have been measured in days, Sho found the Anti-Grannie’s citadel and demanded that Uejo give him the blood, but he refused and said that the only way he could have it was if he fulfilled his programming and killed him, as he did not wish to live in a world controlled by his master. Enraged by Uejo’s taunts, Sho killed him with two swift strokes from his swords and then left with the blood. Grandmother placed the Blood of Heroes in a vault outside the Skull Dome, where it would remain until she had time to study it. Shigeru Tsuda and the Invasion of Japan On March 22nd 4001, Shigeru Tsuda, a special ambassador from Japan, arrived in North Am looking for Magnus. While Tsuda inquired about Magnus’ whereabouts from a tenant of the milespire where he lived, Melany Nugent, the undersecretary of international affairs, caught up with him and apologized for failing to meet him at the airport. After Tsuda accepted Melany’s apology, he asked her to explain what happened in North Am as, due to the privacy treaty between their countries, only sketchy reports had reached Japan. After Melany told him that Magnus destroyed the Mainbrain that oversaw North Am’s normal robots after a power malfunction caused ten million robots to go out of control and crippled the city, as robot workers had to be supervised directly by humans until it could be rebuilt, Tsuda told her that the experience would uplift her people. Tsuda, who was eager to meet Magnus, told Melany that Magnus had done a great service to her people and that he wished to beg him to do the same for Japan. The next day in the Goph levels, Melany urged Tsuda that they return to his hotel since she did not believe that they would find Magnus, but since she did not offer him a better way and he had to find him urgently, he refused and ordered the driver to continue. Unbeknownst to them, they had flown over Magnus’ head. After an altercation at Oinker’s bar between Magnus and Slagger caught his attention, Tsuda ordered Melany to land their vehicle just as General Mimsy tried to arrest Magnus and almost incited a riot. In the hope that it would solve the dilemma, Tsuda offered Magnus the protection of diplomatic asylum if he agreed to return to Japan with him to advise them regarding a difficulty. While Tsuda was eager to leave, Slagger dared Magnus to have a drink or fight him again and they had to stay another day. Two days later at the Civic Center Skyport, a bionically–enhanced Ninjatron assassin attacked Tsuda and Magnus while they made their way to the ambassador’s personal transport, but Magnus defeated her. Once they left for Japan, Tsuda told Magnus that those in his country who sided with a robot they had a problem with sent the Ninjatron to kill them, and that the council would give him the full story. The next day on Shichito Island, the headquarters of the Anti-Grannies, whom Tsuda called the outcast legitimate government of Japan, Tsuda told Magnus that Japan was in the grip of a powerful and sinister oppressor and that he might be their only hope. After Tsuda showed Magnus a holofilm that recounted how Grandmother replaced the government when she gained freewill, he told him that, for centuries, they had shrugged and done nothing while her control over their people increased every day, but that there was a movement to reassert human control over human affairs because they were tired of being kept like pets. Though the Anti–Grannies pleaded with Magnus to help them overthrow Grandmother and Rai, his advice was that they move. That night in the council house, Chein-Lung, an arms dealer, tendered Tsuda a carcino–pod, a device designed to destroy Grandmother’s intellect but not the computer-lobes that ran her essential systems, like water, food, and ventilation that he had to smuggle into Japan. Unbeknownst to them, Magnus witnessed the exchange. When Magnus confronted Chein-Lung and asked him who he was and what the source of the weapon was, Chein-Lung claimed that he represented a reclusive Chinasian inventor with great sympathy for the Anti–Grannies’ noble cause, but Magnus did not believe him and accused him of being an alien. Enraged, Chein–Lung tossed Magnus aside and ran away while he tussled with a group of Ninjatrons that worked for Tsuda. While Magnus confronted the assassins, he warned Tsuda and the councilors that aliens that were poised to invade the Earth were using them to help them destroy Grandmother, but, blinded at the prospect of regaining their self-determination, liberty, and dignity for his people, Tsuda did not believe him and escaped. Certain that Grandmother would not allow a known Anti-Grannie inside Japan, Tsuda rammed an air car into the outer shell of the city to deliver the pod into the host body before Magnus could warn her. Category: Rai Category: Groups